Twelve years ago Melexis pioneered MEMs contactless infrared temperature sensors. This family of successful MEMs sensors is now built into dashboards of cars to guide the HVAC system. It is used in ear- and forehead thermometers, microwave ovens, green air conditioning systems, process control and maintenance systems, medical blood analyzers and mobile phones.

A common problem in the use of infrared thermometers is the error induced due to fast temperature variations and/or thermal gradients. Melexis is able to reduce this effect by 2 orders of magnitude using our built-in compensation technology. This technology is based on the use of a secondary sensor to measure the thermal disturbances and compensate the measurement result with internal digital electronics. In this way our thermometers can be used in environments where most other infrared sensors fail.

Luc Buydens, Product Line Manager Non-Contact Thermometers at Melexis comments: “Our customers tell us that a high accuracy is an absolute requirement. Therefore Melexis delivers the sensors factory calibrated, making them plug and play thermometers: they read out a complete temperature signal, ready to use in their application. Furthermore our products comply with the high automotive and medical standards”

The latest MLX90614ESF-DCH and MLX90614ESF-DCI incorporate a refractive silicon lens to achieve small fields of view (down to 5 degrees) so small objects can also be measured from further distances. Furthermore they are able to measure human body temperature with a high medical accuracy over a wide operating range. In this particular application the accuracy is 0.2 °C. This makes them ideal for forehead thermometers and public area fever scanning gates.

The parts are available in a standard setting TO-39 footprint with integrated lens. Samples and production volume are available.

For further information: www.melexis.com/mlx90614.